Hatching Rouen Duck Eggs

[Miss Lydia]

Boy, what a relief we were worried.

 

[farmlife27]

Yay
If it was my eggs and I wasn’t sure exactly when if I was going to be up late tonight I would put a tiny pin hole above where you see the beak right around your flashlight
I have had many little ones still external pip themselves below my little pin hole
It gives me a piece of mind and it usually doesn’t stop them from hatching themselves
But you don’t want to do it yo early either that’s why I say if your going to be up late
I will let you pick as they will probably be just fine and you will wake up to external pips and another 24-48 hours you will have babies
The beak is exactly where you want it to be

Have I told you that you rock?! Thanks for literally walking me through this step by step LOL. I will keep checking on them tonight and if they haven't externally pipped before I go to bed, I will do the small hole so that atleast I'll feel better and might actually sleep knowing that they'll have it. I probably won't sleep much tonight anyways, i'm too excited LOL. My motion alarm went off on the camera i have in there, it was just one of them rolling themselves around lol It's going to go off one time and i'll open it and it'll be a duck looking at me LOL. So far, of the 8 originally put in, 1 was a dud and the other 7 have all internally pipped, i'm so super happy! I can hearing them chirping to eachother and its the cutest thing ever!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Are these eggs from your ducks?

 

[farmlife27]

@Miss Lydia They are! I put her first eggs in (which originally started this post, but they didn't make it) 7 total. These are the next 'batch" she laid lol. She didn't lay her first egg until November 2nd and wouldn't sit on them, which I read was normal for this time of year. So I took them lol. These are Rouen eggs.

@New duck mommy 2021 i forgot to ask, should I increase the humidity now? I'm not exactly sure as to what the humidity actually is.. The thermometer and humidity gauge on the box show 95 degrees and 70 ish percent on humidity. The one extra thermometer that came with the incubator, is just laying in there and it's showing 99.5. The other little thermometer/humidity gauge I put in there shows 98 degrees and 60% humidity. So i'm a little confused lol.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How many ducks do you have not counting the ones hatching? Are they all Rouen?

 

[farmlife27]

How many ducks do you have not counting the ones hatching? Are they all Rouen?

I have 1 female and 1 male Rouen, and a male Runner duck. I had another female Rouen but a snake got to her before I could :/

(I wasn't aware of the 6:1 ratio for ducks until after the fact, so I am getting more females for them in the Spring lol)

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hopefully, you'll have females in this hatch too.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

@Miss Lydia They are! I put her first eggs in (which originally started this post, but they didn't make it) 7 total. These are the next 'batch" she laid lol. She didn't lay her first egg until November 2nd and wouldn't sit on them, which I read was normal for this time of year. So I took them lol. These are Rouen eggs.

@New duck mommy 2021 i forgot to ask, should I increase the humidity now? I'm not exactly sure as to what the humidity actually is.. The thermometer and humidity gauge on the box show 95 degrees and 70 ish percent on humidity. The one extra thermometer that came with the incubator, is just laying in there and it's showing 99.5. The other little thermometer/humidity gauge I put in there shows 98 degrees and 60% humidity. So i'm a little confused lol.

I would increase it to 65 %
Won’t take to much more to get it there
Then it will jump up high when one hatches abc stay around 70 as the baby is drying. This is very normal so don’t panic
I’m thinking they are all going to hatch themselves
The rocking is a great sign baby is strong and trying to get that shell broken
I’m so excited for you
Once you see an external pip do your best not to open the bator so they keep the humidity up

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I have 1 female and 1 male Rouen, and a male Runner duck. I had another female Rouen but a snake got to her before I could :/

(I wasn't aware of the 6:1 ratio for ducks until after the fact, so I am getting more females for them in the Spring lol)

Don’t stress about that to much
You could have 6 females to the 2 males and be fine
I have 11 girls and 5 boys
Nobody is getting tag teamed and the boys know there place
The lead boy gets his first
It was scary when my younger 5 were not ready to mate and I had 6 boys
I gave one boy away and now all my girls are able to mate and things have got much better
I have one boy that really only likes one girl and she feels the same way she runs from the other boys but now that the other girls are open they don’t bother her at all

 

[farmlife27]

I would increase it to 65 %
Won’t take to much more to get it there
Then it will jump up high when one hatches abc stay around 70 as the baby is drying. This is very normal so don’t panic
I’m thinking they are all going to hatch themselves
The rocking is a great sign baby is strong and trying to get that shell broken
I’m so excited for you
Once you see an external pip do your best not to open the bator so they keep the humidity up

Thank you! I will go add some more water to it and get it higher, I do try to check the best I can to see if I see any external pips before taking the top off of the incubator but once I see one external, I will refrain LOL.